Errol Flynn

Years before Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, and the Hemsworths did it, Errol Flynn was the original Australian to take over Hollywood, becoming almost instantly famous with his role in 1935’s Captain Blood. He became an American citizen several years later; he wrote in his autobiography, “In August 1942 I received my naturalization papers. I was an American citizen.”

Photo: From NBC/Getty Images.

Cary Grant

He defined European sophistication for his entire career, but Grant became a U.S. citizen in 1942. He also used the opportunity change his name legally from Archibald Leach to the suave one we all know, which he had used on film since 1932.

Photo: From the John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images.

Desi Arnaz

Before he was half of America’s most famous T.V. couple, Arnaz was a Cuban teenager living in Miami, where his family had fled after the Cuban Revolution. He became an American citizen in 1943, while serving in the Army Medical Corps.

Photo: From Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

Charlize Theron

One of the world’s most famous South Africans is also now one of us—the Monster and Snow White and the Huntsman star was sworn in as an American citizen in 2007. She joked to David Letterman a year later, “You’re stuck with me now.” As if we’d ever want to lose her.

Photo: By Andreas Branch/PatrickMcMullan.com

Liam Neeson

It was a tragic accident that led Ireland-born Neeson to become an American. After his wife, Natasha Richardson, died in a skiing accident in 2009, the Taken star was flooded with condolences from his American fans. “That is partly the reason why I’ve recently become an American citizen,” he told the New York Daily News. “I’m still a proud Irishman, of course, but I’ve become an American citizen—I’m very proud of that.”

Errol Flynn

Years before Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, and the Hemsworths did it, Errol Flynn was the original Australian to take over Hollywood, becoming almost instantly famous with his role in 1935’s Captain Blood. He became an American citizen several years later; he wrote in his autobiography, “In August 1942 I received my naturalization papers. I was an American citizen.”

From NBC/Getty Images.

Cary Grant

He defined European sophistication for his entire career, but Grant became a U.S. citizen in 1942. He also used the opportunity change his name legally from Archibald Leach to the suave one we all know, which he had used on film since 1932.

From the John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images.

Desi Arnaz

Before he was half of America’s most famous T.V. couple, Arnaz was a Cuban teenager living in Miami, where his family had fled after the Cuban Revolution. He became an American citizen in 1943, while serving in the Army Medical Corps.

From Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

Greta Garbo

The iconic silent film star famously retired at the age of 35, and made her final film in 1941, but she reappeared in public in 1950 in order to sign her naturalization papers and become a U.S. citizen. She remained elusive until her death until 1990, all the while in her adopted home country.

From Popperfoto/Getty Images.

Angela Lansbury

Though her voice remains as English as the Union Jack, Lansbury has been a dual American and British citizen since 1951, when she naturalized along with her husband, Peter Shaw. Don’t get too excited about her loyalties though: in 2010 a friend of Lansbury’s told The Telegraph, “New York may be her home, but her heart is still in London.”

By Clint Spaulding/PatrickMcMullan.com.

Elizabeth Taylor

Like nearly everything in Elizabeth Taylor’s fantastic life, this one is complicated. Born in England, but to American parents, Taylor was a dual American-British citizen from birth. She reportedly first attempted to renounce her citizenship in 1965, while married to Richard Burton, but the renunciation was invalid because she struck out one line in the form: a promise to “abjure all allegiance and fidelity to the United States.” In 1967 she successfully renounced her citizenship as she and Burton prepared to visit North and South Vietnam. Like the marriage to Burton, the renunciation didn’t last; in 1977, as her husband John Warner prepared a run for Senate, Taylor reapplied for citizenship , saying “I plan on remaining in America for the rest of my life.”

From Getty Images.

Charo

“I’m going to be a hell of an American,” the Spanish native, known as the “coochie-coochie girl,” said to the Associated Press as she participated in a nautralization ceremony in 1977. What more is there to say?

By Andreas Branch/PatrickMcMullan.com.

Mikhail Baryshnikov

The world-famous dancer defected from his native Soviet Union in 1974, but didn’t become an American citizen until 1986, when he took the oath of allegiance as part of a ceremony on Ellis Island, attended by then-President Ronald Reagan himself. Following the ceremony, he danced to the music of George Gershwin—a composer as American as they come.

Charlize Theron

One of the world’s most famous South Africans is also now one of us—the Monster and Snow White and the Huntsman star was sworn in as an American citizen in 2007. She joked to David Letterman a year later, “You’re stuck with me now.” As if we’d ever want to lose her.

By Andreas Branch/PatrickMcMullan.com

Liam Neeson

It was a tragic accident that led Ireland-born Neeson to become an American. After his wife, Natasha Richardson, died in a skiing accident in 2009, the Taken star was flooded with condolences from his American fans. “That is partly the reason why I’ve recently become an American citizen,” he told the New York Daily News. “I’m still a proud Irishman, of course, but I’ve become an American citizen—I’m very proud of that.”

By Jimi Celeste/PatrickMcMullan.com.

By David Crotty/PatrickMcMullan.com.

For all the political fighting that happens about immigrants, many of the best things about America come from people who moved here—and Hollywood is no exception. From studio moguls who founded the business to Australian imports who seem to be constantly taking it over, immigrants make up every part of Hollywood, and many of them become Americans in the process. Here are 14 of our favorite stars to become American citizens. Happy Independence Day to us all!